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Month: June 2015

I thrust my foot into his ribs so hard that his body lifted and flew right into the dirty wooden wall behind him, which splintered from the impact. I came closer, just to check that he would stay down. He groaned and let out a cough, quickly followed by a slow, maniacal laugh.

“Quite the kick you got there sport, you should take up soccer.”

That excerpt is part of a work in progress for a story that I am working on.

Many people want to be writers, and good writers at that. The best tips for good writing all boil down to continuous work and improvement, combined with an enormous amount of patience.

AnnHandley.com, which is a website that gives advice from Ann Handley, an author and speaker, gives some great suggestions for writing.

“1. Good writing anticipates reader questions. Good writing serves the reader, not the writer. It isn’t indulgent.”

People don’t come to a book to read what they already know, they usually read to learn about a new world, or at least a different iteration of the one they live in.

“2.Good writing is grounded in data. Data puts your content in context and gives you credibility.”

Just like right now, if a piece of writing, a book, or a story is to be good, it needs to be credible. People want to believe what is being portrayed, and that’s difficult to do if there is no validity to the content provided.

“3. Good writing is like good teaching. Good writing strives to explain, to make things a little bit clearer, to make sense of our world… even if it’s just a product description.”

Writing that uplifts, helps clarify things or feelings, helps us relate, and overall helps us root for the characters involved, is good writing. Readers want to know why things are happening in a story, or else it can come off as non-sensible.

“4. Good writing tells a full story. Good writing roots out opposing viewpoints.”

This relates to conflict for a story. The best of books contain rich conflict, but not just conflict. The best reads have well written and sensible resolutions to that conflict.

“5. Good writing comes on the rewrite. That implies that there is a rewrite, of course. And there should be.”

There is no such thing as a perfect story written by a human, especially one that only took one draft. As anything, writing is a progressive experience, and will take many changes to make it work.

The best stories are the ones we believe, and even want to be a part of. The best characters are those we can relate to, and who can relate to us, because they are almost alive.

“Looking at successful authors and their polished products, you might conclude they must have some literary alchemy at their fingertips, or they really are slightly superhuman, or they’ve made a deal with the devil. (If only it were so easy!)”

“But no: Writing a page turner is an art and a craft. And you can learn to do it.”

This is done starting with “Plotting From The Gut”, according to writersdigest.com, and requires a coherent plot.

That leads us to the critical points that make our plot strong, or “The HCM Method”, the Heart-Clutching Moments. These are the key moments in a story that really develop the story, and especially the characters in it. Writers digest tells us to use the strong moments to strengthen an already good plot, but entirely support it.

According to writersdigest.com, a few heart-clenching moments could be any of the following: A huge moral lapse, love at first sight, a change of heart (for good or evil), or someone standing up to corruption. Those are just a few moments that can make or break a story.

Characters are an imitation of people, but can be so lifelike that they become people. The key to making characters come to life is experience, and ultimately.. depth.

“Today we’re dealing with working at knowing your characters, so the emotional depth comes, not just from you, (though that’s vital) but also from within them. And if this sounds nuts, it isn’t: if you want your book to live, so must your characters!”